1851: The Debut of a Railway Station in the English Village of Hamstreet

February 13, 1851

A railway station in southeastern England’s village of Hamstreet first went into service. This station was built as part of the South Eastern Railway (SER), which operated in this area of the country from 1836 to 1922. At the time of its opening, the station was spelled out as “Ham Street” rather than “Hamstreet.”

Ham Street railway station was constructed with red bricks and in an Italianate style. This facility was designed by William Tress (1800-1859). An architect and surveyor for SER, Tress also designed at least 11 other stations for the company.

Ham Street railway station was renamed Ham Street & Orlestone railway station in 1897. (Orlestone is a hamlet located one mile [1.6 kilometers] north of Hamstreet.) In 1976, however, the station’s name was changed back to Ham Street only.

One of the more recent renovations for this station was a temporary footbridge put in place in 2014. This structure was installed to ensure that people would no longer have to risk their lives by walking across the tracks to get from one platform to another. A permanent bridge for this purpose was installed in 2017.

This station is now managed by Southern, the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway for its routes in that region of England. The Southern trains serving Ham Street railway station are British Rail Class 171 Turbostar diesel multiple units.

Photo Credit: David Kemp / Ham Street Station (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en)

For more information on Ham Street railway station, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_Street_railway_station

Additional information on William Tress is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tress